Tale of Beyond: First Whisper, Last Goodbye
by Ameera Mae Laramie
Summary: It's been fifteen years since the events of the first Tale of Beyond and Destiny has begun to weave it's course in the events that will soon follow. The child from the Hylain and Human Worlds will find her life entwined with the fate of both Worlds.
1. Prologue

¤ _The Legend of Zelda_ ¤

**Tale of Beyond**

¤ _First Whisper, Last Goodbye_ ¤

_The years after Link's heroic tale were the happiest and most thought of throughout the land of Hyrule. Most of the land did not know of how a young boy's deeds against evil saved Hyrule, all they knew was that a power beyond their own abilities had brought peace back to their lives. No matter how short of a period it would be there still was a calmness that fluttered through the wind and ripped along the water. These people left their fates in the hands of those that could change Time to a degree and not harm their own lives or the balance of nature. All of Hyrule went back tot heir daily lives like they had before Ganondorf or even before they remembered he existed._

_Time, as it always did, has a way of going back on itself if it is not kept in balance with the other Worlds. The simple melody that was played after Ganondorf's defeat caused a small rift in the vortex between Worlds, causing several of these Worlds to go back seven years in Time. These certain Realms went back as though nothing was wrong -- Time often holds more then one World together in a pattern that can not be undone. This shift in Time allowed any wrongs to be righted and for life to resume as it should be on a World that did not know it was not alone in a much larger universe._

_Many years had passed since the second pendent had left the Hylian World and entered into the Human World. It never left it's owner, forever sleeping with her underneath the solid ground of the Earth forever. The destiny of this World was now in the hands of another no more knowing then a young queen was when she left her home to find a better life for herself. Prophies were now in motion to perhaps save another Realm from befalling another destaster._

_Now the tale entwines itself with that of Hyrule's fate, bringing two Worlds together even more so then they had been before. These two Worlds must come together in order for the dark ways of the past to be with that of the light ways of the future. The fate of the Hylian World and that of the Human World depends on the passage of Time and the courage of a child born of two Worlds...._

_Beyond_ and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

There was a time where I had wanted nothing more then to see the ocean and do nothing but lay on the sandy beach by the shore. I still want to see the ocean deeply, always did for as long as I can remember but that want and need has calmed down some since my early childhood. That drive to want to see and feel the edge of the coast was a far contrast to what my mother dreamed of, who seemed to be on edge went I would fantasize verbly about it. She didn't seem to like water that much or had gotten tired of hearing me drone on and on about it; even my father learned to just smile and nod when I had gone into a long spiel about the ocean.

My mother seemed to know a bit about sandy shores on the water given her distaste for anything other then a shower or a bottle of water. During the height of my early obsession I had begged my mother to tell me what the ocean looked like, the way it smelled, and how the wind would cry along the edge of blue water and tan sand. She would laugh at that before telling me that she had never been to the ocean before but she knew of one place that she had been to but hardly spoke of it. She had told me once that, where she came from before living in the small town where I grew up and still live, there was a vast lake beyond a silver gate. It held something rather mysterious and valuable she had claimed even though she did not tell me what it was. I only believed that she didn't know herself and didn't bother to ask any further about it even though I was curious to know.

She had also said that it wasn't hard to get to the lake but it was a long journey from where she once lived -- clear on the other side if I remembered correctly. A person would have to be a good climber to get on the other side or have a horse jump over it. When she was a child, she had said many times when I was put to bed, that she would dream of that lake and wanted to see what was at the bottom of it even if she couldn't swim down that far. I'd ask her why we couldn't go there to find out but she had never answered the question. Her eyes would go totally blank before walking out of the room after kissing me goodnight without even so much as an explanation why she didn't answer. I never understood why she didn't tell me instead of not answering -- I never did find out what was at the bottom of her lake.

That was a while ago and time passes on. Mom is no longer there, she died when I was eight and left me and my father alone to fend for ourselves. I still think about her a lot and wonder how she knew just about everything but not willing to tell the two of us about it. There are some nights where I still cry myself to sleep because that's when I need her the most and want to hear a story or just want her to be there. Although I don't do that as much as I do now, not like I did a year after she had just died. There are times I swear I hear her voice calling me but that was just my imagination or the wind; I wish that she was still there to tell me that everything is alright and there isn't anything to worry about.

Dad, however, hasn't spoken of her since her funeral and it's been almost seven years since then. Everything was taken down that reminded him of her, placed in boxes and put in storage in the attic. I suppose he didn't want anyone to remember that mom used to live there, why he didn't send the stuff to her side of the family I don't know. I managed to swipe a few things for myself before they were put away, like several pictures of her and a worn teddy bear that she had given me when I was three, just so that I would have something to remind me of my mom. I still hide those things from him so they wouldn't be taken away and put with the rest of her collection in the attic. Dad is still torn up about her, I can tell just by looking at him.

And that was exactly what I was going to be doing after school let out of the day Calista, one of my dad's best officers and the closest to me and dad, was waiting in the parking lot of my school after the last bell of the day. I had hoped she was there to give me another driving lesson; I'm about a year away from getting my license so I don't have to rely on either her or dad to get me to the mall or a friend's house. For some reason or another she wasn't there to teach me how to drive but take me to the police station because my father wanted to talk to me -- why he couldn't wait until he got home from work I didn't know. All that Calista told me as we drove off in her police car was that he wanted to before it was too late at night. It made little difference to me when he talked to me about things unknown; I figured it probably had something to do with school or something else that I could possibly have done. While we were on the way to the station I had rattled off numerous things to Calista that could be wrong, all she had done was shake her head and said no; the expression on her face looked rather grim and tired, like she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. It also scared me since she _rarely_ showed anything other then a calm expression, with the exception of when my mother died.

I hadn't gone into the station right away when Calista and I had first gotten there, I wasn't really all that keen on talking with my father. He wasn't exactly the type of person to easily spoken to, especially after my mother's death. Anything he wanted to talking to me about usually involved school or why I was out with friends before homework was finished, not that my grades were falling or I was roaming the streets at some odd time of night with classmates. But maybe it had something to do with parent/teacher conferences coming up the following week; I knew I shouldn't have skipped Mr. Barkley's fourth period History class last month -- although he probably wouldn't have taken notice if the entire class didn't show up. Whatever it was it couldn't wait until later, even when Calista had to almost drag me into the station and to my father's office.

I could tell something was wrong, or I was in some sort of trouble, when I had sat down in the chair facing my father's desk. The door to this office remained closed even after I had come in, my father was semi-hunched over his desk, and he wasn't loking at me when he wrote ona pad of paper. He could easily watch someone and write at the stame time without his notes going all over the paper in odd ways, a talent that I had picked up from him but his more from years of practice. It's one of the very few things I inherited from my father, I got my looks and everything else from my mother. My dark hair, my eyes, my ears, and other such things from her -- although my eyes are a strange deep blue and friends have said that my eyes appear a weird shade of red in the sunlight for a second. No one else seems to have slightly pointed ears, other then Calista but she doesn't like to show them; I used to get teased and called "elf girl" when I was in middle school.

The man in front of me didn't seem to take much attention that I had sat down or was even there except when he had told me to keep the door closed. He kept his eyes down and face squeezed in concentration; he looked paler then he had since I saw him at breakfast. That added to the fact he had been acting rather strange -- him and Calista both -- put me on edge. For the last month he had been keeping me close by as much as possible and a more watchful eye on what I do, Calista as well. The two of them seemed to have been at each other's throats for just as long; Calista didn't seem too thrilled about picking me up not even an hour before. For the entire ride to the station she semed to want to say something but couldn't for whatever reason or another.

"Melody Marie," my father said suddenly, causing me to jump slightly. I looked at him and he started back at me with a slight frown; he didn't look too happy with the way he was watching me. My father isn't exactly the most handsome man, with a few grey hairs and a bit of added weight he put in the last seven years but he still cloud easily get a girlfriend if he tried.

"Yes?" I asked, pulling the hood of my jacket over the top of my head as best as I could and slid down in the chair some. My father almost _never_ spoke my middle name to me and coupled with the glare that he had, I knew I was in some sort of trouble about something. His glare spoke a million words at that moment, the unwanted attention on me making me even more nervous then I was before I came inside his office.

"There is a few things that I would like to discuss with you, and I want you to tell me the truth," he said flatly as he moved his eyes back down to the paper and continued to scribble things onto it. "Understand?"

"Yes," I said nervously, wishing that he wouldn't look so serious when he sat there like he didn't want to talk to me. Not that I was scared of him or anything, he was just a hard person to get to know even when one got past the hurt eyes and strictness that had started not long after my mother had died.

"I just want you to know that none of your teachers set up any conferences with me so there's no need to worry about that. Your grades are good from your report cards, and I don't have to worry about you being in detention for anything. " His eyes flickered up to me for a second before going back down to his paper. I didn't exactly know what he meant by detention but the nervousness suddenly left me, and I had to tug on my hood to keep myself from laughing. Anything he had to talk to me after that wouldn't be more pleasant than those words, no one that I know would want to have to go through a conference with a teacher and live long enough afterwards to tell the tale of it. I was just glad that I wasn't one of the students that had to have a parent go to a conference.

"I'm glad to hear that," I said rather relieved, smiling brightly as though I had won a contest but was met with another glare instead of a relieved look in return. My smile faded some, and I slumped in my chair even more; there was little that could make my father smile, even knowing that his only child didn't have teachers calling him to conferences to discuss her school behavior.

"There have been some strange activity reported around your school to several my officers. Teachers haven been seeing flashers of light in and around the woods next to the soccer field behind your school when they come and leave from school the last few weeks. Some people have even reported that an unknown person has been lurking around the parking lot during several home games in the last month or two while others -- non-teachers I might add - have also noticed the lights going on and off else where around the school." He told me, placing the pen down as he stared directly at me. "Have you seen anything like that? Have you seen anyone that you think is out of place in the parking lot?"

"No I haven't. I don't go to the games, remember?" I said, looking down at my hands and shifting nervously in my seat. That was a small lie considering there were a few times that I had snuck out to go to a basketball game with friends to cheer on our team. I hadn't done that in a long while since one of the officers under my father had seen me at one of the games and had threatened to tell my father if he caught me at another game without my father knowing. Those few games were the only times that I had done anything behind my father's back and it would be near impossible now to do anything of the sort. "I have never heard of such things happening."

My father stared at me for what seemed like forever before he sighed deeply. "What would you say it would be if you _had_ seen them?"

I blinked, caught unaware by the question. Why was he asking me when I hadn't seen nor heard of anything of the sort? I was telling the truth when I said I hadn't heard of anything of the sort happening before. This was the first time I had been told of any weird flashes of light at the back of the school where the soccer and baseball fields were located and a strange person lurking about the parking lot; a big patch of woods separates the fields from a small housing community where several teachers live. The stranger could have been anyone, an older brother or sister that had dropped off their younger sibling early or was picking them up from school or anyone else that could have been just waiting for a younger relative or a friend. It didn't make me any more nervous then I was, didn't even come close to what I was feeling before. Perhaps it was just me being used to strange people coming in and out of the station since I nearly grew up inside of it; I was more comfortable here then I was at home.

"I don't know, the flashes could be anything really. Kids have been playing flashlight tag lately in the woods and there has been a lot of early morning dirt bikers around there. It's getting warm now." I shrugged. "As for this unknown person, it could be anyone that just moved to the town and wanted to see what the school was like before enrolling their kids. Perhaps it is one of the basketball guys who was waiting for the teachers to let them in so that they could get some morning practice in."

"No, it's a female from what the reports have said." He looked down and to the right at the small stack of papers on his desk. I didn't know if he was going to give me a bigger description other then just 'female'; that said very little of any potential pesons just lurking around school grounds that had nothing else better to do then to freak out teachers. Plus it was a very broad and general description of a lot of people in town, something that even a _child_ could have told me. He must have read the silence to mean that I couldn't go by just that tiny description nor agreed to be on the lookout for something out of the ordinary that didn't seem normal. "I don't have an _exact_ description of her but she is about the same height as Calista, has short white hair, and is often seen in dark, tight clothing."

_That_ didn't get me any closer to understanding why my father thought this woman was a threat even with that description; a lot of homeless persons often go through the parking lot of the high school and no one has had any problems with them that I knew of. Maybe it's me not having to worry about dangerous sides of things that held little concern for me to worry; this town had little to worry about in terms of crime. It's a cliche thing to say about one's own home town and crime _does_ happen here but it's not on the scale as with other places in the country. Maybe it's also the fact that my father's the police chef as well that I had a better sense of security and it wasn't like he hadn't drilled some of that sense into me by now.

Still, I saw little threat in a person that not even the nightly news has talked about nor has any of my teachers mentioned this person _once_. If this woman, whoever she was, was a threat to any place there would have been officers stationed around different points around the school. Perhaps it was just my father being overprotective like he was or he wanted to tell me first before any news station created panic around the schools. I had little worry that if there was such a person that the police wouldn't get her before something happened.

"That is all the information I can give you, Melody, until I can get a better description. I don't want you to go to school before the first couple of buses, even if Calista herself takes you." My father looked back up at me with a look of worry. Normally he didn't have the look that was something deeper and knew more then he was willing to tell. I know his job meant he couldn't just go talk about _everything_ but even with the way he was, he kept me well informed. With the way he was acting the last few weeks -- Calista included -- made me wonder if he was withholding information on purpose about these so-called 'flashes of light' and person of interest. "While she doesn't fit any current descriptions of any wanted persons and hasn't been seen since the last home football game last week, I want you to keep an eye out for anyone out of place. You come to me if anyone approches you and starts to ask strange questions. Is that clear?"

"Um, no problem." I stared at him wondering what he meant by 'strange questions'. I understood the basic things about thieves, kidnappers, and the like -- being the police chief's daughter it was an automatic line of thinking -- but what kind of strange questions did he mean? I was becoming annoyed at the lack of information even though he did claim he knew nothing else and couldn't decide whether ot ignore the warnings or simply be suspicious of everyone I passed. "Is there anything else you want to tell me before I go home? I've got homework to do."

That in itself wasn't a complete lie but it wasn't like I had mounds of it to do, just some Algebra, a few chapters to read for English, and questions from History. Nothing I couldn't handle in a couple of hours or, if I wanted to stretch it out, the entire weekend. It was Friday and it was starting to get warm outside; with an entire weekend homework could wait -- there were a few friend's houses that I hadn't been to in a while or movies to watch or someplace to explore a bit. Anything else to do other then to sit in the house and do nothing for the rest of the night. Unfortunately my father seemed to read my mind and his slightly worried expression contorted into a more firm look. That change had also something to do with the tone I had used with him; I honestly did not intend on staying much longer in this room to listen him lecture about safety or anything else.

"Yes there is." He placed his hands on the desk as firmly as he stared at me. "I don't want you or your friends going through the old, abandoned lot down the street from our hours no matter how much you four think you can fix it up. There's no telling what could have been thrown in there, you may get hurt or worse."

"Okay, whatever," I mumbled as I stood up and grabbed my backpack. The lot in question had once been the site of a house that burned down when I was five and the debris from that had long since been cleaned up; now it's just an empty place no one wants. If someone, or a small group of people, got it looking nice and turned it into something usable, like a garden, the lot wouldn't stand out like an eyesore. Perhaps that was my line of thinking and it annoyed me greatly to be told _not_ to fix it. "If you don't want me to do something productive with my time, I'll just sit in my room and watch TV."

"I never said you _couldn't_ do anything productive or do something with friends, I don't want you to go through the lot where _anything_ could be discarded into it." His voice elevated some, which usually tells anyone within hearing distance that he wasn't about to be argued with more. "Just not anything that could get you into trouble, that lot isn't as great as you think it is. Why don't you go to the mall instead?"

"Dad the closest mall is a half hour away and the only other places to shop is downtown." I stared at him in amazement, wondering how he could sit there and expect me to get somewhere that I needed to be driven to. The only other place that was a walkable distance away besides friends houses was this very police station; I could ride my bike home in twenty-five minutes in bearable conditions.

"I just want you to keep from doing anything that has the potential to be dangerous, and I would be a lot happier knowing you are safe. I can't have you in places where there isn't a lot of people around, not now." He moved a few pieces of paper on the desk. "I don't want you to do anything that would endanger yourself."

My mouth hung open slightly, my brain searching for something to make me completely understand what I was being told and to make sense of it. From what my father just told me I wasn't allowed to be outside my own house without a legion of people around me so why was it okay to be at _home_ by myself? Was there some sort of protective bubble around the house that prevented anyone from coming in other then myself, my father, Calista, and friends? Or was my father just overly paranoid about this strange person and those damnable lights? I couldn't tell if it was just a heightened sense of fear that someone would take me away from him or I just didn't see him on the same level or it was something else completely.

"Since when did just trying to have fun get to be so dangerous?" I asked rather defensively. "And why is it suddenly so important that anything I do instantly on hold?"

"You're taking everything I'm telling you and twisting it around. I'm not saying that you can't do anything, I just don't want you to get hurt." His tone was moving towards the point that if I didn't shut up now then I most likely would be in trouble for it later. I wanted to say something else in retort but if I did I probably would be grounded for it -- that would just make the weekend even more horrible then it was looking now.

"Fine, I'll find something to do and be safe," I grumbled, a far cry from what I really wanted to tell him. I turned and walked towards the door so that I could start walking home; I would enjoy the time it would take to get home and think about what I was going to do for the night.

"One more thing before you go," he called out to me as I came to the door. "Calista will be taking you home tonight, I can't get out of here as early as I thought I was going to. She'll be off duty in ten minutes."

"Excuse me?" I turned around to face him rather quickly. I knew he was going to be late getting home -- he always was on Fridays -- but he rarely had anyone take me home unless it was raining, snowing too hard, or was just too dark for me to walk home. And it was neither snowing nor raining and there was still a good hour of sunlight left for me to safely walk home in. "It is only a couple of miles from here and it's that dark out. I can walk just fine by myself."

"Melody, it is still too dark out for my liking, and I don't want you to go by yourself." My father gave me a rather dirty glare and a frown. "Do you not remember what I just told you?"

"I can take care of myself, it isn't like I'm eight anymore. I can walk home by myself." Just then I had stepped over the line with my tone alone but I wasn't about to let myself be kept from doing something I had been doing since I was ten. I wasn't as worried about strange people as my father was, considering I spent my entire life so far around the station. If there was any threat in suspicious people then there would have been more of an heightened awareness around the other officers other then just my father.

"Melody," he warned more seriously this time, moving a hand to the phone on his desk. He'd call someone in to physically drag me out to Calista's car; he did that once, about four years ago when I had refused to go to school after he had taken me to the station an hour before the bus came. It had been embarrassing to have two officers dragging oneself out the door and to the waiting bus, and I didn't want to repeat that scene again no matter how angry I was really starting to become with him.

"Fine, I'll go get Calista to take me," I hissed out, turning on my heels, opening the door, and stomping out of his office. At this point I would probably receive a long talk after he came home but I didn't care; I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. There were ways of delaying long talks or being grounded for an entire weekend, even if I had to sneak around to friend's houses or elsewhere. At the present moment I just wanted to get as far away from my father as possible.

XXX

When the door to Kurt's office opened rather quickly and Melody Lang stomped out, Calista had to lower her head and put a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing. The girl acted so much like her mother even if she didn't know it; the flair in which set on her face and the way she walked were still far cries from what her late mother had but a shadow of it was still there. There was that known streak of frowning that she got from her father and the nasty snarl that tugged at the corners of her mouth that threatened to go into that very same snarl her father used on occasion. _That_ would land her in serious trouble one day if she didn't watch it, but it couldn't be helped.

Calista took her hand from her mouth, glancing quickly at the large counter-calender seated under her finished paperwork she had to turn in before she left the station for the day. March the sixth, a little over a week before Melody's birthday. Normally there wouldn't be any worry about birthdays but this birthday was what made her stomach go into knots. It was a nervous glance that she made, one that made her insides squirm; it was too close, too late for any formal training. If anything happened according to prophecies that may not necessarily come true and from what she saw and heard from around Melody's school, something might just be. Or it was just another who was just as worried as she was, nothing more then that -- formal contact hadn't been made in the last several weeks but there would be at least one more meeting that was to be done before Melody's next birthday. In the end all it did was make Kurt keep his daughter from knowing even more with all of this secretive meetings and odd occurrences going on.

"He wants you to take me home," Melody hissed when she stomped over to the front counter. Calista looked up from her paperwork, her amused expression fading quickly. Melody's face told the Sheikah that she was annoyed but not so much that she didn't barge out of the station and walk home herself. From what Calista could see from the glass windows of the station it wasn't dark enough for the girl _not_ to walk home by herself. There was an underlying reason to the statement made, one that Melody was oblivious to.

"I suppose," Calista sighed, picking up her paperwork and motioning towards the double doors to the station's main entrance. "Wait by my car, I'll be there once I drop off my paperwork. Don't make me repeat myself, child."

Melody didn't need to respond nor had the chance to, Calista turned and walked out from behind the counter to the office the girl had just come out of. Calista could almost see the roll of her eyes and the frown setting in without even looking at the face it belonged to; she had to smile to herself just because of that. If the energy Melody possessed had been directed elsewhere then that same roll of her eyes and frown would have been a petty thing to do. Her heritage -- both newly awakened after laying dorment for several known generations and from her parents -- would have her more of an edge with training. It was a pity that neither Kaya nor Kurt had given their daughter the opportunity to do so, although Kaya had her reasons before she had died and had expected her husband to tell their daughter of what could be coming.

"Just lay the paperwork on my desk," Kurt said without looking up from his own when Calista walked into his office. She would do just that and slightly more, pushing the door closed with a free hand with a thud. Kurt only looked up because of the sound, an annoyed look on his face. "What is it? Did Melody leave without talking to you?"

"No, I fully intend on taking her home myself." Walking to the desk Calista put her finished reports on the desk and leaned on it slightly. "You do know she'll be turning fifteen on the sixteenth, right?"

"I'm fully aware of _that_. You and Kaya made that quite clear years ago." Kurt's face didn't change when he spoke her name although Calista knew he was wincing inside. "And I made it clear she wasn't going to do anything not even a week ago, yet again. If Kaya didn't want to go back herself and told little of her own home, what makes you think she wanted _Melody_ to go?"

"Kaya had her reasons for not returning but she knew Melody wasn't her. She also didn't want to be the one to show her child her home, not when there was so much at stake." Calista said quietly. Even though both knew the general idea of what Kaya's life had been like before she came to this World, neither herself nor Kurt knew the full extent of it. "Her reasoning behind not training her properly was because not only because she didn't know if Melody was the right one or not but because she, herself, didn't wish to return to give Melody the proper direction. Besides she couldn't do it herself, not without Sheikah help."

"And you know mine," he said coldly. He knew the direction the conversation was going in and he did not want to continue with the discussion. One person he loved had died because of the World in which she had been born into, he wasn't about to let the other do the same. "I'm not about to have my only child go into another World she doesn't even know about based on some ancient Sheikah tales that may not even concern her!"

"That was primarily Kaya's doing, her journals are still available to Melody." Calista let that sit in the open for Kurt to understand. He stared hard at her, the edges of his mouth beginning to curl into the workings of a snarl. If Calista wanted to push him even further -- and she wouldn't do it today -- she'd mention more then what the late former queen left in writing and a passing birthday. As it stood now she was pressing Kurt's controlled calm and borderlined into the sullen emotional wreck he kept hidden.

"I know that!" Kurt growled through gritted teeth. "I didn't ask you to come in here and refresh my memory on the reason's _why_ Kaya's belongings were put away. Just _don't_, I'm already aware of what _could_ happen."

"Alright then," Calista said with tight lips. She learned at a young age when to back off and come back to pursue a situation and when to keep pressing on without hesitation. This was one of those times when she had to quit while she was ahead and continue the battle at a later time. She already had her battle plans laid out and a excuse to continue on. "I'll come by the house tomorrow and pick Melody up in the morning so that we can go driving. She isn't going to get any practice in if she just sits around the house watching TV."

Kurt continued to start at her with the same borderline snarl but did not respond with words. He'd allow that small victory for her for now; he knew the Sheikah wouldn't say anything to his daughter, not when she'd have to explain more then just why there were odd things happening around her. Not even _he_ could explain it fully, not without the pain that came with it. However he didn't put it past Calista to give Melody an early birthday present; he was aware that Calista still had the pendent in which brought her into the Human World, the identical one that Kaya had with her in her grave. Even if Melody didn't know what it did -- and she was better off not knowing -- she most likely would still receive it, there was no stopping that even if he forbade it. That would be one battle he wouldn't be able to win.

Calista took the silence that their conversation was truly over, turning away from the desk and headed towards the door. She smiled, aware that what she would be doing over the course of the next few days would awaken more then a heated argument between two people. In the end if what she believed was true then everything would turn out just fine.

_Beyond_ and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

Every move into the Human World was risky but they had to be done especially with the nearing date looming just ahead. Thee was a little over a week before she would know if this girl was the one the Prophecy foretold or if it was another, how she would find a child under the age of fifteen that fit the description of this failed was beyond her. She just hoped that this waiting wasn't for nothing.

Impa stood as patiently as she could in the one of the secondary kitchens of the castle, near the staircase that lead up to one of the many twisting corridors above. One of the cooks -- a young Hylian male that looked no older then twenty-two -- was preparing dinner for the princess-heir and Impa herself. She was lightly surprised that this cook didn't falter under her gaze; even the cooks who had been serving the Royal Family since this cook had been in diapers still made mistakes while cooking under her watchful eye. She was only there to make sure that nothing slipped into Zelda's food, the Goddesses only knew how many had tried in the last fifteen years alone. Even with the princess-heir at twenty she still needed an attendent while in the castle; the Sheikah trusted the Kokiri more then she did the king. The child-like beings still weren't accustomed to outsiders but even _they_ had better manners then the ruler of the land did even if his own had improved since Zelda had become of-age.

She sighed, her eyes moving away from the cook for the time being. Her mind was on the week ahead and what hopefully come after that if all went well. Since Kaya had left this World behind everything seemed to fall into place to set up for the possible events that would take place in only a matter of days. After Ganondorf had been sealed in the Sacred Realm and Time had righted itself after the music of the Ocarina had been played, Impa had set out to keep an eye on the remaining days of the former queen and anything that might have come of her stay in the Human World.

The Sheikah was surprised when she found the queen not even three years after she had left her home behind and was alive and well; the Ocarina's music seemed to have affected the Human World as well or it had been a twist of destiny to keep it that way. Whatever it was there was no need to continue to use the pendent taken back from the Zora Ruler as much as she had been using it or to interfere with the former queen's new life since she had yet another chance at a better life. She was fine and much happier, if she knew anything had changed within the stream of Time she didn't show it.

Impa knew that Kaya had a daughter in the Human World, much to Impa's delight; perhaps, by fate alone, this was the Prophecy working or a higher power that had made it so. Much of the information gathered on the child came from when the Sheikah had gone into the Human World to watch her and from the only other known Sheikah in the Human World that she knew of. Calista had and still was a great assit on keeping watch on the girl and had managed to keep in touch with Impa on the few trips she made to this other World even if those times were nothing more then letters hidden in places that the two of them normally kept their conversations.

Information was shared between old friends, even the passing of Kaya was shared; Impa had not been surprised to learn of that since Kaya had not taken the advice given to her nearly ten years prior to her death and went back to Hyrule for one lunar cycle but it was still a sad moment. Impa could not go directly to Zelda bout her mother's natural death as she believed her mother had died years before at Lake Hylia. There was no need to tell her about this until the right moment.

Impa gave Calista as much information as she could on the happenings in Hyrule. Ganondorf's defeat and Link's tale were told to what Impa had seen and been told from reliable sources as well as what had happened to Zelda's and Link's memories of the events. Stored in their minds for later retrieval was the only thing that could be done until the next Prophecy could come about. That hadn't been her doing and hat not known of it until after Time had been restored the second go around. There had been several extra weaves in the pattern that kept most everything in place so that nothing would repeat itself again. Zelda and Link only knew each other from the moment the boy had sneaked into the garden where the princess-heir spent most of her time and that was how it stayed instead of having the boy go after the last of the Spiritual Stones.

The two had managed to keep their few meetings private between each other; Calista could just as easily go between Worlds as much as Impa could but it was advised not to. While Calista had few restraints and no one to keep looking for her if she disappeared, Impa did not have such a luxury. Zelda's trips to the Kokiri Forest -- when her attendent was informed of them in advance or had insisted on them -- often gave the Sheikah the perfect opportunity to sneak away. With the sprouting Great Deku Tree and Saria to watch over her Impa had no problems going into the Lost Woods and go into the Human World from there. Calista was always in the same place, an open park that sat not far from where the town was. No one there had paid them any mind that they saw and no one would have any idea what they were saying to each other. The Sheikah or Hylain language was perfect for times like this.

The only questioning Impa had eas from the king and even he seemed to be growing tired of repeated himself and having the same answers repeated back to him. Impa could not tell him of the movements she made, not even Rauru knew of everything she did and _he_ always knew when something happened. As of late the king kept, or tried to keep, Zelda on a much shorter leash; the princess-heir would need to be around for when suitors came to call. She was still unmarried and preferred to remain that way for now. There was so much of Hyrule that she hadn't gon through by herself and without a legion of guards behind her to keep her from either running off or being harmed. There was a suitor-prince that was on his way within the next three weeks and there could be no interruptions for _that_, even if the land was burning all around them. Things would have to be moved about if there was anything to be done with the Prophecy.

Even with the knowledge that ther was one possible person linked to the Prophecy, Impa couldn't keep going over it multiple times in her mind. She had first heard of this Prophecy when she was much younger from the Sheikah elders that raised her and had not thought of it at the time. At least two of them had been original ones to tell her of the pendents and had entrusted the first one, the one she had given to the Zora king then recently retrieved, before telling her of the one in the castle some time later when she had begun serving the Royal Family. These same men and women had told of the events that may happen very seriously, to the point where she had almost believed it would happen when she first heard of it. Prophecies tended to go in any direction even if it was misheard or even worse, mistranslated from another language.

The Prophecy generally foretold of a child of two different Worlds that would fight a darkness that threatened to overcome the land once again but to what extent this child would fight and what the rest of the Prophecy was, Impa had not told Calista or anyone else other then the general details were. Not until she saw the child with her own eyes and could relate it to her in person; it was best to give all the information to the one the Prophecy was first before anyone else. She knew off-hand it wasn't Link as the Prophecy clearly stated that it was a child of two _Worlds_ and was a female -- the only person that she could put the Prophecy to was Kaya's second daughter. She hoped that this was the case and nothing had been put to waste.

Impa rubbed the back of her neck, her eyes moving back to the cook. He was almost done with the meal, putting the finishing touches on the two plates in front of him. It was not a large meal since it was only for two and no one else; the king held no formal dinners since well after Kaya's death. The last several dinners between father and daughter had been only to please passing chancellors who had paid their respects to Kaya's empty grave. Zelda rarely dined with her father unless there was a need to, with the many suitors and other visitors from across the border any meals together were needed just for show. If any of the nobles that visited looked deeper then they would see and feel the tension between father and daughter.

"There you are," the cook said after he put the two plates of potatoes and chicken on a gold-plated plater and handed it to her. Impa smiled half-heartedly at him -- he was still a child to her despite the very early signs of age lines on his face -- and took the tray from him without word. Two cups were placed on the tray ten seconds later, tops facing down. The cook bowed slight, turning around to clean up after cooking the meal without another word to the Sheikah.

There was no need to provide drinks with the meal at this stage as another servant to the Royal Family would have already brought the gourds of spiced tea to Zelda's room by now. This not only kept any of the liquid from spilling but also kept the liquids from being spiked; the multi-colored mysterious gourds used came from within the deep parts of the Lost Woods and were reinforced with Sheikan magic. She had ways of knowing if anything had been slipped into the gourds that would harm the princess-heir or even Impa herself. In the last two months alone she had to send for different drinks ten times because there was something foul within that made the drinks undrinkable.

Impa turned, walking carefully to and up the stairs leading up to the corridors of the castle; in ten minutes she would be in Zelda's chambers. There were shortcuts to everywhere in the castle and the Sheikah knew them all by heart, more then what the eyes-and-ears of the king did. It all would come in handy for when the child of Prophecy came, if the time ever came to pass.

XXXX

Zelda held the tip of the cucco feather quill-pen just above the ten inch dried parchment piece, face scrunched up in contemplation. It was hard to write down a letter of refusal to yet _another_ suitor without making it look like such when her father would hear of it faster then she was writing it. The suitors had seemingly come in droves starting the same week that she had come of-age and all looked more eager to bed her then they were to seal any lasting commitments to her father and remaining family. Most of them _had_ tried and none had gotten away with it -- Impa and guards were, thankfully, within yelling distance. These few times the princess-heir was glad her father had his temper -- no one would force themselves on his daughter like that without her consent. This gave her a tiny sliver of hope that something good would come from her already strained relationship with the king.

Putting the quill-pen down, Zelda leaned back in her chair and sighed. There was a small, short breeze coming from the open balcony door, the fading light of the day disappearing over the horizon. Maids had come in and lit the seven candles on the walls surrounding her room already, Zelda lighting the two sitting on her writing desk. Another servant had brought up two small gourds from one of the kitchens, bowing ever so slightly when he placed them on the nightstand by her bed and walked out. That had been almost fifteen minutes ago, the Sheikah would be not far behind now with their dinner for the evening. It was better to dine with her attendent -- or even by herself -- then it was with her father; whatever redeeming qualities the man had shown in the last few years he still was far from being one she sincerely called "father".

Since her mother's death when she was little the kind had never remarried and lived without a wife since then. Whether or not he had brought in wrenches to relieve himself the princess-heir didn't now nor cared to know. Othe then the suitors, lessons from tutors, and a few meals and other state affairs, her father left her alone for the most part to do as she saw fit. As long as she was protected by Impa or twenty guards, little to no harm could be done to her. However many guards there were to be her protectors, she felt safer with the Kokiri then she did with those same twenty guards. No amount of freedom could be given to her then being with the child-like forest dwellers; there was no one within the forst that could, or would, have any reason to forcibly keep her away from her enjoying herself.

"Don't keep staring off like that, child. Your ink will dry out if you do," a voice scolded as the door to her room closed shut. Zelda turned around just as Impa set the gold-plated tray she had been carrying onto the bed. She hadn't even heard the Sheikah enter the room much less open the door; if she hadn't spoken Zelda wouldn't have known Impa was there past the food becoming cold.

"I know," Zelda said with a sigh, turning back to her writing desk and placing the silver cap back onto the light purple bottle. There was about one-fourth of a bottle left for her to use, when she went to the forest again she'd need to get more ink from the Market. If there was one good thing that came being the princess-heir to the throne was that she didn't have to pay the full price on items in the Market. "What's for dinner?"

"Potatoes and chicken, spiced tea to drink." Impa's tone was flat when she spoke, taking the glasses used for drinking and turned them over. Zelda got up from the desk and walked quickly to the bed, smiling at the sweet smell of the potatoes imported from the far north. It had been a few months since she had these kind of potatoes; from the way the food was cut it appeared like the cook had made the meal had done so with a bit of care. Her attendent must have been watching over the cook and made sure it was done right, or had kept it from being poisoned.

Impa looked grim as she poured the spiced tea into the crystal glasses, hardly taking notice that she was being watched by her charge. Zelda frowned slightly at this, wondering why Impa continued to appear like something bad was about to happen or that horrible thing had already come to pass without anyone else taking note of it. There seemed to be a cloud hanging over her, the sense of dread at the back of her heels -- she had been like this for at least two months now. There were times when the Sheikah had been found muttering to herself when reading through the servants library or standing at the glass window that overlooked Zelda's garden and the throne room. She had often done that when passing nobles had come to pay a visit to the Royal Family, Impa watching them closely and with a look that could have killed a moblin in it's tracks. There had been questions asked to the servants of these same nobles and other passing travelers of the same rank or higher, questions that would have shocked even the Gerudo.

Zelda had asked Impa twice about what these questions and murderous looks hoped to accomplish other then glares from the castle maids and warnings from the other nobles servants. Both times she had been told rather harshly it was none of her business and not to ask again the second time she had asked, it was best not to question a Sheikah's own questioning too many times. Although she had never seen Impa become angry before, Zelda had heard of Sheikah's turning ordinary persons into animals -- a feat that to this day she couldn't believe without seeing it first. Why would they bother wasting their magic on such trival things as a question about them?

"Are you going to eat or just stare at the gourd all night?" Impa demanded. Zelda shook her head, realizing that her attendent had one of the glasses held out to her and was looking rather miffed about waiting for it to be taken from her.

"Sorry, was thinking," she said, taking the glass and a plate of f of the tray before heading back to her writing table to eat.

"About what?" The Sheikah asked, taking the remaining plate and glass, setting the tray aside so she could sit down on the bed.

"About the suitor," Zelda lied, taking a bit of the potatoes as she sat down at the desk. If Impa could lie about her own business, Zelda could lie about he own thoughts. "I don't know anything about him, not even which noble house he's from."

"Not even your father knows much, I believe. The correspondence between the noble house and the king didn't say much." Impa didn't sound so sure she wanted to deal with another suitor as well, or it could have been a worry that Zelda couldn't exactly place on one thing alone. "We'll see when he arrives in several weeks. Until then just worry about your dinner, not a suitor that won't be here for a while."

Zelda grimaced, bitting hard on the chicken; the letter she wanted to finish writing sat underneath her plate. It stood as a reminder of what she wanted be doing in several weeks time and the only way she could get out if it cleanly but what lie could she use that would not only satisfy this suitor as well as her father? The princess-heir had only sent one rejection letter to a suitor before she had even met the man and _that_ hadn't ended well; her father still would not let her forget it even to this day.

"I have some business to attend to in Kakariko in the middle of next week," Impa said quietly after taking a drink of her tea. "I assume you'll want to be in the Forest instead, hmm?"

Zelda smiled and nodded, suddenly presented with a chance to get out of the castle and without any guards. There would be a battle of words between herself and her father over going since the Sheikah wouldn't be with her while she was there. Any guards sent wouldn't be able to enter the Forest anyways, not if the Kokiri had anything to do with it. The sudden need to go to Kakariko wouldn't be a surprise to the king considering that Impa not only had lived there before but also founded the village herself; meetings with the villagers often took place during the transitions between seasons. It wasn't an odd thing for Zelda to go along too, even if her father knew his daughter wouldn't go to Kakariko but instead to the Forest. Whatever business Impa had in there was none of Zelda's currently.

Zelda smiled into her glass, the trip to the Forest well worth the arguing that could come before with her father.

_Beyond_ and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


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